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I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. A bill that could dramatically reshape transportation funding and planning in Mecklenburg County took a key step forward this week as House Bill 948, the PAVE Act, P-A-V-E, cleared the House Transportation Committee. The legislation titled for Projects for Advancing of Vehicle Infrastructure Enhancements, that's where the acronym PAVE comes from, would authorize the Mecklenburg County Commissioners to place a 1% local sales tax on the ballot coming up this November. If approved by voters, the measure would fund a range of transportation projects, including road improvements, bus systems, and rail development.
Republican Representative Tricia Cotham out of Mecklenburg County said, This is the first time we've had so much buy-in and so much support. We all know road money is hard to come by, it's very political, and it creates a very tailored space for funds coming within Mecklenburg County and must go out. Everything is very secure in that process, and that's why I believe you have so much buy-in. Under the plan, as written in House Bill 948, 40% of sales tax revenues would be allocated for road planning needs in the county's six towns, which include Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, Pineville, the City of Charlotte, Mint Hill, and Matthews. An additional 40% would be spent on rail projects, and the remaining 20% would be spent on the bus program.
With over five million dollars in road funding on the line, officials in Matthews have been hesitant of the plan due to the bus line. Lawmakers acknowledge that there are more discussions that are still needed to be had to bring Matthews fully on board with the latest bill draft. This legislation creates a 27-member transit authority to oversee how the transportation money is spent. It will include members appointed by the governor, state lawmakers, Mecklenburg County, and the local towns and municipalities. No elected officials or lobbyists can serve on the board, and the group will focus on big projects like rail lines and bus services.
It must finish at least half of the red line rail project before starting any new rail line.
So, very keyed in on what exactly the responsibilities of this group are. Representative Cawtham said that the bill was shaped with input from local leaders, town managers and business groups throughout the region. It's backed by a bipartisan group of ten Mecklenburg County lawmakers, with Representative Cawtham being the primary sponsor. Business leaders also showed support during the hearing. Peter Pappas, a longtime Charlotte developer, called it a multi-model investment, essential for sustaining the region's economic growth.
Ultimately, lawmakers emphasized that the final decision will, in fact, rest with the voters. Representative Brendan Jones out of Columbus County said, quote, keep in mind at the end of the day, it's going to be up to the citizens. They're going to have to vote.
So if they don't like it, they'll vote no. If they think this is the right way to go, then they'll vote yes. I highly urge you to vote yes on this bill. It's a good step forward to do the right thing by Mecklenburg. The state cannot continue the path that we continue right now.
We can't afford to fund everywhere.
So this is a great opportunity to give citizens of Mecklenburg County an opportunity to have a say in funding their transportation needs. End quote there from Representative Jones. The bill now heads to the House Finance Committee. We've covered some details. Over the last couple of months as it relates to mass transit in Charlotte and in the greater Mecklenburg County area.
We'll continue to track House Bill 948 right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. We've also got additional details this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. North Carolina lawmakers are also considering a bill that would require public schools, community colleges, and universities to evaluate long-term costs of technology purchases and monitor repair rates of school devices. Supporters say that the measure, which is Senate Bill 449, would bring fiscal responsibility to purchasing decisions while promoting efficient use of technology across the state's education system. According to State Senator Michael Lee out of New Hanover County, he is the Senate majority leader, he says, quote, this bill essentially just requires the K through 12 system as well as the community college and higher ed systems to take into consideration the long-term costs of technology, which would also include a residual value.
He mentioned that during a House Education Committee meeting earlier this week. Senate Bill four hundred forty nine includes a number of mandates for schools ranging from reporting repairs and maintenance rates at devices known as a break fix rate to gauging their resale value. Debate came up during the committee meeting with Representative Julie Von Heven, the Democrat out of Wake County, raising questions about implementation costs, expressing weariness over the financial and administrative burden that a piece of legislation like this could have on the school system. She told her fellow lawmakers, quote, My concern is that technology instructors and staff are being cut in our public schools, and this is again another mandate on them without paying them or giving them any additional resources. Represent State Senator Michael Lee clarified that the bill does not mandate new spending but focuses on better stewardship of existing funds.
With Senator Lee telling his committee members, quote, the break fix rate is the percentage of school technology devices reported malfunctioning or having to be repaired that is not covered by insurance. I am hopeful that schools are already using the money that taxpayers have entrusted with them to determine these issues as they go into purchasing new devices and new technology.
So it's really more of an analytical system to get them to report out so that we have a better sense of what something like that looks across the state. The bills spells out specific responsibilities for each level of education. Public schools and charter schools would need to annually report those break fix rates, the total number of devices in use, devices repaired or removed from service, and the total repair or replacement costs to the State Board of Education. The board in turn would compile these reports and submit the summary with recommendations to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee. Community colleges and universities are also on the list as well.
They would also implement these policies to assess long-term technology costs that are used in a similar criteria. State Senator Michael Lee framed the bill as a necessary step towards preparing the state schools for an increasingly digital future as resilience reliance on technology grows and traditional textbooks are phased out. He noted, quote, the cheapest today is not always the cheapest in the long term. The bill would take effect immediately upon becoming law with reporting requirements beginning in the 25-26 academic year. The first report from educational institutions would be due next summer, August the 15th of 2026, with a summary report from the State Board of Education coming up in November of next year.
So we're still.
Some time away from this legislation actually becoming law, we're not exactly sure how its track is going to work its way through the North Carolina General Assembly. But it is a rather interesting discussion as schools are investing large amounts of capital into various technology products, Chromebooks in every classroom, tablets, other sorts of pieces of technology that exist throughout the library and the rest of the school as we focus on K-12 education. Those do come with pretty high rates of upfront expense for the school, aka the taxpayers to purchase. And this legislation, as described by State Senator Michael Lee, would start gaining some analytics, some metrics on how many of those devices are breaking, how much it's costing to fix them, and does that device, does that various product make sense in the long term as school systems continue to adapt their technological needs and provide that to their students? And again, also requiring the community college and university system.
To provide some of that same information as well. We'll keep an eye on the details right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour and over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Riley Herps from 2311 Racing here. And you know what grinds my gears? Waiting for coffee.
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Happy Friday the 13th and News Talk 1110-99.3 WBT. Keeping our eye on some other statewide news this morning, weeks after announcing that it is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Durham-based Wolfspeed is laying off 73 workers from its new minerals factory in Siler City, which is in Chatham County. Wolfspeed manufactures wideband gap semiconductors focused on silicone carbide and gallium nitrate materials, including microchips. General Motors and Mercedes-Benz are among its customers as it's used in many new vehicles. A worker adjustment and retraining notification, also known as a WARN notice, on the North Carolina Department of Commerce's website shows that the jobs cuts were announced on June the 9th, with the layoffs taking place August the 9th.
The WARN Act requires employers with 100 or more Full-time employees, not counting workers who have fewer than six months on the job, to provide at least 60 calendar days advanced written notice of work site closings affecting 50 or more employees or mass layoffs affecting at least 50 employees and one-third of the worksite's total workforce or 500 or more employees at a single site in a 90-day period. Last month, the company announced that it was purchasing a pre-packaged chapter, rather pursuing a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan after its largest backer refused multiple attempts by creditors to restructure its debt out of court. Chapter 11 is a relatively common bankruptcy that allows distressed companies to continue operating while their businesses, debts, and assets are reorganized. And the term prepackaged means that the company would file a plan it agreed upon with its creditors. In October, Wolfspeed secured $750 million worth of financing from Apollo Global Management, which is an investment firm.
According to the details at the time, they looked at the various data and determined that the various economic situations set up by tiprank.com, which provided some of that analysis and found that this had gone on. That same month, the Biden-Harris administration announced that it had signed the initial agreement for up to $750 million in federal funding to support the construction of a new $5 billion silicone carbide wafer manufacturing facility in Siler City. This was under the Chips and Science Act. The company said it planned to hire more than 1,800 workers at the site. Again, a $5 billion manufacturing facility.
But the company has not yet received any of the funding because it was contingent on Wolfspeed refinancing its convertible notes maturing in the years 2026, 2028, and 2029. According to tip ranks, the silicone carbidene ship maker has roughly $6.5 billion in debt, while its cash and cash equivalents balances only stand at $1.3 billion as of the end of March of this year. Apollo Global Management, which has led restructuring negotiations over the last couple of weeks, holds one point five billion dollars in senior secured loans and would be paid back first under this Chapter eleven agreement. The group has the right to approve any new secured financing, which was also responsible for rejecting all of the restructuring deals and offers that came forward in March, according to TipRank. Those deals included provisions for Wolfspeed's largest lender, which is Chinese Renaissance Electronics, to convert some of its outstanding convertible notes to equity.
The company recently notified investors about its growing risks and cuts in twenty its twenty twenty revenue outlook to just eight hundred fifty million dollars, significantly below expectations. Globally, Wolfspeed has about five thousand workers, with the majority of them being in the Research Triangle Park area.
However, the company began showing troubling signs in November when it announced that it would reduce its workforce by more than 20%, with most of its layoffs coming from its Durham location. With more layoffs, buyouts, and attrition, that figure now stands closer to 25%, so a quarter of its workforce laid off starting late last year. In a report to investors about earnings for the first quarter of 2025, the company announced a loss of more than $282 million in the first fiscal quarter. The job reductions are part of an announcement that took place in August of last year that a 150 millimeter production facility in Durham would close as well as a facility in Farm Branch, Texas, and plans in Germany would be suspended indefinitely. Former Wolfspeed CEO Greg Lowe said in a statement that the company took action in fiscal year 2025 to solidify the capital structure of the organization, simplify their business to accelerate structural profitability, and support the build out of their state-of-the-art silicone carbide facilities, including a new 200 millimeter silicide carbide plant in the Mohawk Valley, located in New York, as well as facilities continuing here in North Carolina.
The company fired Lowell just days after he made that announcement, and Robert Pharrell was named as the put into that position on May the 1st. Chief Finance Officer Neil Rollins is also reportedly leaving at the end of this month. A continued trend showing decline in EVs, electric vehicles, especially in the United States and Europe, has not been helpful to the company. As it stands right now, Wolf Speed is funded by a job development investment grant, also known as a JDIG grant, reimbursed under the Economic Development Project Reserve during former Democrat Governor Roy Cooper's tenure in the 2021 budget. That reserve fund allocated more than $57 million for site development to Wolf Speed.
This is a very rocky situation that we are tracking this morning. We've got a lot more details on Wolf Speed and how this process has unfolded over the last couple of years. You can get those details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, where it's now 541. There's been large national attention this week on the issue of immigration. Obviously, riots and protests breaking out in Los Angeles and now many other cities throughout the United States.
We do have some immigration-related news here in North Carolina. To walk us through the details, Brianna Kramer, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour. Brianna, this is not the first time over the last couple of months that we've talked about immigration legislation out of the General Assembly. There's been some movement this week. What are you tracking?
Yeah, hey Nick, the North Carolina Senate passed two immigration enforcement bills this week as this conversation around illegal immigration and enforcement at the federal level continue. That was House Bill 318, the Criminal Alien Enforcement Act, and then Senate Bill 153, the North Carolina Border Protection Act. Both of these passed the Senate along party lines with no Democrat support. And then one of the bills actually went back for concurrence on the House side. And now both of them have been sent to the governor and are awaiting an unlikely signature from Governor Josh Stein.
Walk us through those two pieces of legislation. What do each of them do and relevant this morning? Yeah, so Senate Bill 153 that passed in a 26 to 17 vote, it mandates broad cooperation between state agencies and federal immigration authorities and seeks to curb sanctuary city policies across the state. And then the other one, House Bill 318, it would require sheriffs and local law enforcement across the state to cooperate with federal immigration authorities when dealing with individuals suspected of being in the country illegally and charged with serious crimes.
So, you know, they're trying to crack down really. It comes as the Trump administration is continuing to crack down nationally. But we've also seen this in the North Carolina General Assembly in past sessions. For example, at the end of last year, they passed an ICE bill that was passed, but they want to crack down on it more and kind of put more teeth into the legislation that they're. You know, dealing with as these sanctuary jurisdictions in North Carolina have continued to kind of skate by some policies.
And actually, within one of these bills, it gives the citizens the authority to go after these sanctuary counties that are not following these immigration policies.
So, citizens would be able to essentially sue their own counties if they have these policies in place. You know, and it's interesting, everybody has seen what's been going on in Los Angeles over the last week or so. And listening to some of the national officials talk about that, Brianna, they've made the point that because of some of the sanctuary policies, not only in the state of California, but in the municipality of Los Angeles, that is why ICE conducted those raids in the way that they did, because there was no cooperation with local law enforcement when they, in fact, were arresting individuals for unrelated crimes that happened to be in the country illegally. Yes, and so these bills are really just trying to go after maybe sheriffs or different authorities within the state that are differing in their stance and their policy from the federal government and the immigration and customs enforcement. And so part of the issue in North Carolina we've seen is the idea of holding an undocumented immigrant in their authority instead of releasing them so ICE can come pick them up.
And so what this one of these bills mandates local officials must hold a person for up to 48 hours to allow for federal pickup.
So really it's kind of this tension between federal and state and local policies and authorities. And that's obviously been a continuing discussion in Mecklenburg County. There's been some issues there over the last couple of years. As you mentioned, Brianna, just last year, the General Assembly thought that they had solved this problem by passing some legislation.
However, there are still some holdouts.
So I guess they're just trying to. Re-codify this in the law? Yeah, exactly. That is what they're trying to do. And one thing to note, speaking of Mecklenburg County, the House bill that passed, Representative Carla Cunningham, she's a Democrat representing Mecklenburg County, and she was in support of it.
So she was the one Democrat that has been in support of some of these immigration crackdown policies. As she has kind of seen what's played out in the Charlotte area, she's referenced that while speaking about immigration issues. Yeah, we've mentioned her comments in the past. It's a great update this morning. Brianna, where can folks go and get some additional details?
Yeah, you can read the whole article on CarolinaJournal.com. Brianna Kramer joins us this morning on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Riley Herps from 2311 Racing here. And you know what grinds my gears? Waiting for coffee.
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Terms and conditions apply. 551. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT. Don't forget, if you miss any portion of our show, you can check out the Carolina Journal News Hour podcast in your favorite podcast app. We are also streaming live this morning and every morning over on our Carolina Journal YouTube channel.
It has been a very busy week in the North Carolina General Assembly. Multiple pieces of legislation have been sent to Democrat Governor Josh Stein's desk. One of those big ones, we talked about it yesterday, deals with constitutional carry. The North Carolina House has officially passed Freedom to Carry, the Freedom to Carry NC Act. They did that Wednesday afternoon along party lines, which seeks to make North Carolina the 30th state to adopt constitutional carry across the United States.
It did pass in a 59 to 48 vote. All Democrats and two Republicans, Representative William Brinson out of Bladen County and Representative Ted Davis out of New Hanover County, voted against the legislation. Representative Keith Kidwell, who has been a longtime supporter of this move, explained that the bill would allow North Carolinians to constitutionally carry a firearm without obtaining a permit from the government to exercise what he calls their God-given right to defend themselves. Representatives debated the bill for roughly an hour on the House floor Wednesday afternoon, mostly Democrats arguing on the legislation. Not much response from Republican lawmakers as they did go forward and approve that bill.
It has now been sent to Democrat Governor Josh Stein's desk with an expected veto, and that's going to make things interesting as we look at the potential and possibility of a veto override. Republican leadership would need to. Secure a three-fifths majority in both chambers to secure an override, a task that is relatively simple in the Senate. With all Republicans there and voting, they do have that three-fifths majority.
However, Republicans in the North Carolina House are one vote short, meaning that they are going to have to be very careful with vote counting and any sort of absences or no votes or abstentions from this if it is to come back for a veto override. It is important to note with this legislation, there will still be the opportunity for individuals to go through the process and receive a concealed carry permit. The reasons that that may be useful according to lawmakers is the concealed carry reciprocity that North Carolina has with many adjoining states where you're allowed to legally conceal carry your firearm in another state if you've gone through the process in North Carolina.
However, under this legislation, if it is to go forward, Individuals over the age of 18 that are not convicted felons or other sorts of legal issues that bar them from owning or operating a firearm, they would be able to purchase that firearm, go through the federal background check process during the purchase, and then they would be able to constitutionally carry that gun without any additional permits or restrictions here in North Carolina. That's going to be something that we're going to watch over the next couple of weeks as it is set to draw probably some pretty large criticism from Governor Josh Stein. Rather, we'll continue to track the details right there. It was also a big week in the federal government as President Donald Trump announced earlier this week that his administration plans to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This gets set to be coming forward after the 2025 hurricane season.
With the president saying, We want to wean off of FEMA and we want to bring it down to the state level, a little bit like education. We're moving it back to the state so that. Governors can handle it. If they can't handle it, then, well, maybe they shouldn't be governors, but I'm sure that they can work in conjunction with other states. This has a very big North Carolina connection as President Donald Trump first started toying with this idea during a visit to western North Carolina in January, just days after he was officially sworn into office as the 47th president.
He did visit the western half of this state to survey damage from Hurricane Helene. He talked about some of those issues at the time, talked about spinning up a FEMA advisory council, and that is exactly what he has done. The president followed up by saying the FEMA thing has not been a very successful experiment. It's very, very expensive, and it doesn't get the job done. You saw what happened in North Carolina under the past administration.
And when we got in, we did a great job for the state. We brought it back, but it was a disaster. FEMA has not worked out well. Those are the comments. there from President Trump.
Secretary of Homeland Security Christy Noam agreed with the president, commenting that we all know from the past that FEMA has failed thousands, if not millions, of people, and President Trump doesn't want to see that continue into the future.
So this agency fundamentally needs to go away as it exists. Starting next year, if this plan is to go forward, money for disasters would be given to states directly from the president's office. Christy Noam, who also serves as the co-chair of the FEMA Advisory Council, told reporters earlier this week that a FEMA council, which will work on reforms, will be set up over the next few months and will empower governors to respond to emergency situations. In the meantime, it was expressed by everybody in the discussion that the federal government is fully prepared for the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, which did begin about 12 days ago, exactly, on June the 1st and runs all the way through the end of November. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, is forecasting 13 to 15 named storms this season, of which 6 to 10 could become hurricanes.
3 to 5 of those are forecasted to reach major hurricane status with winds more than 110 miles an hour. Governor Stein is very much against this move to dissolve FEMA. We will obviously watch the Atlantic hurricane season as it unfolds and provide additional details as we get it right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. That's going to do it for a Friday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT.
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